What the heck is so special about 420?

4-20 means something different to different groups of people – almost all of the things that 420 marks are infamous at best.

First, April 20th is Adolf Hitler’s birthday. The infamous German dictator was born in Branau am Inn, Austria to Klara and Alois Hitler on April 20th, 1889.

110 years to the day after the birth of Hitler came the attack on Columbine High School in Colorado. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 13 and injured 21 before killing themselves on April 20th, 1999. As an odd coincidence (or not) April 20th is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

A lesser-known event occurred in 1914 when striking miners and their families were attacked:

The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families atLudlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Some two dozen people, including miners’ wives and children, were killed. The chief owner of the mine, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was widely criticized for the incident.

Perhaps to forget the terrible things that have happened on April 20th, pot smokers everywhere celebrate today as ‘weed day’ in celebration of cannabis culture – convenience stores everywhere may be running a little low on cheetos and such today.